Host Tucker Carlson asked Roth how far he was willing to stand on his principles. Was Roth willing to forfeit federal funding should it come to that?

“We certainly hope it doesn’t come to losing federal funding,” Roth said, “What we’re not going to do is not cooperate with extra-juridical deportation proceedings.”

Carlson noted that it was “a little weird” to refuse to follow federal law while accepting federal funds, likening it to “a rich kid denouncing his parents while living in the guesthouse.”

He also referred to Roth’s decision to pick and choose which laws the university will abide by as “an a la carte approach to criminal justice.”

Carlson asked Roth about a statement he’d made on his decision, where he called the incoming Trump administration’s stated goal of getting tough on illegal immigration as a threat to “roll back the civil rights gains made in recent decades.”

“Is there a civil right to enter the United States illegally and be educated at public expense?” he asked Roth.

The university president admitted there was no such right, but then claimed that voting and minority rights were being trampled upon.

“You’re saying that Donald Trump said that he will … reduce the voting rights for black Americans?” the Fox News host asked in disbelief. “That didn’t happen.”

Roth ignored the question and claimed that several states had enacted voting restrictions that would keep African-Americans from the polls, and cited reduced early voting days and fewer polling stations.

“That’s not race-specific!” Carlson shot back. And it also has nothing to do with illegal immigrant students.